English H.

W
A Tale of Two Cities
Understandings of Chapters 16-17
Chapter 16: Chapter 16 is called Still Knitting and this
refers to the sinister and dark woman called Madame
Defarge. In the chapter, it is written that when the
Defarge’s reach back home in the evening, they are
informed that an Englishman named John Barsad,
AKA Solomon Pross, has been sent to spy on them.
Madame Defarge immediately knits and writes Barsad’s
name and foretells that he will be punished. He arrives
at the Defarge’s wine shop the next day and Madame
Defarge places a red rose in her hair. Soon, two men
enter the shop, but after seeing the rose in her hair,
they leave. Barsad’s actual scheme is to grab the plan of
the Defarge’s, in which he fails. Then he changes the
subject that Darnay is getting married to Lucie and
then he leaves. The Defarge’s in disbelief, Madame
Defarge knits the name of Charles Darnay because all
aristocrats must die.
Chapter 17: Lucie spends the last night before her
wedding to Charles with her father. She asks Dr.
Manette if he believes that her marriage will bring
them closer. Dr. Manette assures her that he wants to
see her fulfilled, and couldn't live with himself
otherwise. For the first time, Dr. Manette talks
to Lucie about his imprisonment in the Bastille. He
tells her that while there, he passed the time by
imagining how his unborn daughter would grow up.
Would she know nothing about him, or think about
her lost father and weave his memory into the family
of her own? Late that night, Lucie sneaks downstairs to
check on her sleeping father. Dr. Manette's face is
deeply worn from his trials, but he is peacefully asleep.